sunset from behind the wire

Thursday, October 31, 2013

There is a new class of individuals that have emerged during the Obama Administration that exist under the 'czars', and I'm classifying them simply as party apparatchiks.

Apparatchik (plural apparatchiki or apparatchiks) began as a Soviet Russian colloquial term for a full-time, professional functionary of the Communist Party or government, i.e. an agent of the governmental or party "apparat" (apparatus) that held any position of bureaucratic or political responsibility, with the exception of the higher ranks of management called "Nomenklatura".

Apparatchiks are not people with grand plans, but they are creatures of a hundred carefully executed details. It is often considered a derogatory term, with negative connotations in terms of the quality, competence, and attitude of a person thus described.

In Soviet Russia, members of the "apparat" were frequently transferred between different areas of responsibility, usually with little or no actual training for their new areas of responsibility. Thus, the term apparatchik, or "agent of the apparatus" was usually the best possible description of the person's profession and occupation.

You can see them in every government office at almost every level. I had an issue with government about two weeks ago and went into the building to speak with somebody to try and deal with their complaint personally. The mindless drone who sat at the reception desk wouldn't allow me to speak with anyone personally. She handed me a telephone so that I could speak with the apparatchik in an office no more than twenty feet away. I knew that the apparatchik was close because I could hear her voice (outside of the telephone) when she spoke. In this case, it didn't work out well for this particular apparatchik because I used to be a 'something something' and appealed the matter to a member of the nomenklatura (much bigger boss) who knew me and dealt with it on my behalf.

Apparatchiks are all exempted from odious government programs such as ObamaCare. (members of the Party must be exempted from the pain and grief that they dole out onto the 'great unwashed proletariat).

In the burgeoning government class, you can readily identify apparatchiks because they can hide behind a myriad of rules and regulations. The US Internal Revenue Service is completely packed with apparatchiks.

(Yahoo) At nearly 4 million words, the U.S. tax law is so thick and complicated that businesses and individuals spend more than 6 billion hours a year complying with filing requirements, according to a report Wednesday by an independent government watchdog.

That's the equivalent of 3 million people working full-time, year-round. "If tax compliance were an industry, it would be one of the largest in the United States," says the report by Nina E. Olson, the National Taxpayer Advocate.

Now with the government taking control of every aspect of the healthcare industry, you're going to have to deal with an apparatchik if you plan on navigating the system for yourself or for someone you love who is ill. There is nobody on the planet more useless than an apparatchik (think "empty chair"). A lot of them working together built the ObamaCare website - and even with four years and an unlimited budget, they couldn't create one that worked. In the future, those people will be responsible for filling your prescription (correctly).

You can buy your freedom from unpleasant government regulations and avoid the apparatchiks. 1,200 corporations and special interest groups were exempted from ObamaCare. All they had to do was to donate heavily to the Party. (all pigs are equal but some are more equal than others)

Historically in America, the Stamp Act (1775) was thought up by the nomenklatura and administered by apparatchiks. The result can be examined in history books.

Nobody hates the private ownership of firearms more than the apparatchiks. They are a disturbing reminder that sovereignty does not rest with them, but with the People. And we know that the people are not "qualified" to be armed in any progressive "crime free" paradise such as Chicago, Illinois, where the doctrine works perfectly. (the nomenklatura always surrounds itself with "lawfully armed" guards to protect themselves from those they rule.

Just look around you. The government under President Obama has nearly doubled in size. There are literally more government workers in many parts of America then there are people working to keep them in office. Apparatchiks need to be well paid because they need to be happy. They can't be fired, and any major screw up will result in a 'transfer' to someplace else where they will be equally useless.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Sometimes it's difficult to keep blogging about what is obvious to me, but seems to elude so many Americans:

The Obama Administration represents a depraved and vicious side of America. Our allies have all deserted the United States. Who can blame them? American credibility has never been lower and it has to do with the nation's leadership.

Truth: Some Americans can keep their doctor. The president and his family will certainly keep their doctor.

Obama on ObamaCare: "If you like your insurance, you can keep it."

Truth: Obama knew when he said it that roughly half of all Americans who privately pay for insurance would be dropped by their insurance companies. The will have nowhere to go but the Government Insurance Exchanges -- if they can get on the broken website. They will pay roughly double for the same insurance that they used to have. It's all part of the plan.

Hillary Clinton, the Bitch of Benghazi, is waiting patiently in the wings to carry on the Obama movement to fundamentally transform America.

Quite frankly I doubt it. However, an article by Thomas Sowell in National Review is interesting reading.

If you're interested, the entire article is well worth reading. The quoted sections below are an excerpt.

For American society, a dangerous polarization has set in. Signs of this polarization over the years include opposite reactions between blacks and whites to the verdict in the O. J. Simpson murder case, the “rape” charges against Duke University students, and the trials resulting from the beating of Rodney King and the death of Trayvon Martin.

More dangerous than these highly publicized episodes over the years are innumerable organized and unprovoked physical attacks on whites by young black gangs in shopping malls, on beaches, and in other public places all across the country today.

While some of these attacks make it into the media as isolated incidents, the nationwide pattern of organized black-on-white attacks by thugs remains invisible in the mainstream media, with the notable exception of Bill O’Reilly on the Fox News Channel.

Mr. Sowell is a very clear headed man, who the media mostly ignores, because he's black. And there is nobody that the mainstream media hates more than a black man who speaks frankly and honestly on the subject of race in America.

When the Chicago Tribune was criticized for editing out the race of the attackers in a series of similar organized attacks in Chicago, it replied that race was irrelevant. Yet race is not considered irrelevant when indignantly editorializing on a disproportionate number of young black males arrested and imprisoned.

Sadly, what happened in Milwaukee and Chicago were not isolated incidents. They were part of a pattern repeated in dozens of cities, in every region of the country. Colin Flaherty’s book, which is subtitled “The Return of Racial Violence to America and How the Media Ignore It,” reveals this pattern in painful detail.

Other books are emerging that are more clearly a white backlash, in the sense that they attack behavior patterns among contemporary blacks in general.

Perhaps the most clearly “backlash” books are those written by Paul Kersey, whose central theme is that whites have created thriving cities, which blacks subsequently took over and ruined. Examples include his books about Birmingham (The Tragic City) and Detroit (Escape from Detroit).

I don't see a general race war in which white people slaughter black people to be a likely scenario. I knew a person once who suggested that blacks would rise up and kill whites. However when you look at raw numbers and who is at the range on the weekends, I can suggest that the ratio of survivors would favor whites if it came to a show down.

In more recent riots in Los Angeles it's interesting to note that only black neighborhoods were destroyed by blacks. The Korean district was spared because the Koreans shot back and left rioters dead on the perimeter of their neighborhood. Likewise most white neighborhoods were spared not due to the intervention of the police, but because of the presence of armed people intent on preserving their lives and property.

The progressive agenda suggests that those armed people be disarmed, but that's not likely to happen anytime soon despite legislation.

When you look at the ratio of white to black in combat arms, it favors the whites overwhelmingly. There are quite a number of black service people in supporting roles. Thus the experienced veterans intermingled in society are overwhelmingly white as are the police.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

There is something special about grandparents. Mine saved me as a young boy -- literally. I think of all of the old people in nursing homes who are neglected and disregarded and I can't help but wonder what the disconnect is. Oh, I understand that there's a time when you can't take care of elderly parents and grandparents at home...but visiting them is always important. Because they're not with you forever.

Saturday, October 26, 2013

America needs to balance its budget for the security of the nation and to maintain a firm foundation for future generations.

America's military should be second to none.

The home is the fundamental unit of society. Success in life doesn't compensate for failure in your home.

Citizens have the right to protect themselves, and to remain secure from intrusion into their homes and their affairs except upon issue of a warrant by a judge.

Life is sacred including the lives of the unborn.

Constitutional safeguards balance the needs of government and the needs of the people.

The home is the core of society.

Marriage consists of one man and one woman.

People built this nation and their own lives and businesses through hard work and deserve to enjoy the proceeds of that effort.

Is that "radical"?

Progressive Positions

Law abiding Americans need to be completely disarmed in the presence of armed criminals to make the country more secure.

Social justice requires that the rich give their money to the poor unless the rich are part of the clique that supports the Obama regime.

Borrowing money is good, buying back your own bonds and printing money without any decent restraint is a wise policy.

Agencies of the US Government (only when acting under the direction of a Democrat) should use their power to single out and attack political opponents.

One of the defining things about a woman is her right to flush her unborn children in much the same way as one would go to the restroom.

The Constitution is obsolete and needs to be re-written by somebody a lot wiser than the founding fathers -- somebody like Barack Obama (ghost written by Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers and former Nazi, George Soros).

The state is the core of society.

Marriage consists of any number of people in any gender arrangement that people want.

Friday, October 25, 2013

Mine was a 1957 International Travelall, nicknamed the Green Monster. My grandfather bought it for $150.00 as US Government surplus. The Federal Communications Commission owned it, used it and put it out to pasture. At age 15, he thought that it was high time that I had a car of my own to work on. So it became a joint project. The Travelall ran, but needed some work. We started with a paint job. At the time, Earl Scheib painted "any car for $19.95, so we took it there and had it painted dark green.

The truck pictured (above) is not the Green Monster - but very very close, so I included it for reference.

There was no air conditioning.

Gas mileage was 10 mpg with a stiff tail wind (down a steep grade).

Top speed about 50-55 mph on any grade or the straight and level.

We added a 15 gallon auxiliary fuel tank because the original 15 gallon tank gave it very short legs.

The low gearing meant that in the mountains you could push over aspens and spruces with a 6" trunk as if they didn't exist.

It was the perfect hunting and fishing truck - which was what you did when I was a kid. It was cold as a witch's tit as I recall. The truck's heater was inadequate and barely warmed your leg.

Leaf springs all around - rough ride - but not much to break.

The original bumper didn't stand up well to rough use, so we replaced it with a steel i-beam that my grandfather located in a metal scrap yard and added a winch. In the winter I was stopped at at stop sign on an icy road and a new Buick sedan slid into the edge of the bumper while making a left hand turn in front of me and it opened the Buick like a tuna can. I didn't notice much but a nudge as the car rubbed past. The paint transfer was about a one inch smudge on the i-beam.

The Green Monster hauled hay to the horses from the house to the lower pasture, hauled dead deer, elk and antelope, dead pheasants, chukar partridges, and quail. Dead german brown trout, brook trout, rainbow trout, striped bass, lake trout (mackinaw), graylings, small mouth bass, large mouth bass, cutthroat trout, pumpkins and squash, etc. My coyote rode in it as did my Rhodesian Ridgeback and sleeping in the back worked just fine. Better if the dog was there to keep you warm in winter.

The truck did not impress girls, but boys thought that it was very cool. My first girlfriend (Susan) threw me over for a boy from a rich family whose father gave him a brand new pick-up truck. History and present circumstances taken into account, she might have been better off sticking with me and the Green Monster.

Thursday, October 24, 2013

The Democratic Party's unassailable majority for the first two years of the Obama Presidency rammed ObamaCare (government run 'socialized' healthcare) down the throat of the nation without even an attempt at building a consensus.

Those who suggested that small tweaks to the present system were usually branded as racists because that's how things work. If you disagree with Barack Obama and the Democratic Party, you are by default a racist.

Then the president rolled back the business mandate for a year because he didn't want to cause undue stress to business on the eve of a mid-term election (because it's all about winning elections). And forging ahead with the individual mandate, it's now the law that you pay the ObamaCare tax by buying incredibly expensive insurance whether you want it or you pay a fine for not buying insurance. Except that you can't sign up for insurance even if you want it because the website is broken. That's history now.

Snickering conservatives who suggest a measure of irony is present with the most liberal American president of all time would overseeing the most notable technological failure by the federal government, perhaps ever -- are being labeled as racist. The Federal Department of Health and Human Services had literally an unlimited budget to build a website. Millions of websites are built, some of them even more massive, every year. Most of those have budgets. But even given a blank check, the task was beyond those in the Obama Administration to implement.

To Progressives:Do you really want a federal government that is so astonishingly incompetent that it can't create a website to sell insurance, to manage your healthcare? And is it racist to suggest that the architects of that botched the whole program are up to the task of essentially running 20% of the economy? And is simply making note of a screw-up of Biblical proportions -- by definition, "racist?"

It would be far cheaper and easier to simply provide direct subsidies, via tax credits, to the relatively narrow demographic band of those folks who want insurance but can’t afford it because of pre-existing conditions. Demolishing the current health insurance system is underway but of all the alternatives to the president’s plan -- to offer, a bigger, more centralized single payer plan would hardly be the frontrunner at this point.

The federal government is not now and never was a credible custodian of American's health insurance. The feds are not trustworthy. Think of the NSA scandal, the IRS scandal and the long list of failures during Obama's presidency and tell me that the government wouldn't use healthcare as a weapon against political opponents. And suggesting that, is not racist. Recent history suggests that it's much more likely part of the inevitable implementation than not.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

The Farm Bill currently under discussion in Congress is primarily about The federally-funded grocery assistance coupons -- which are issued by states in the form of debit cards under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which used to be known as food stamps.

"Since 2008, the cost of SNAP has more than doubled from $34 billion to $74 billion," according to Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D. who said in a recent press release that the Obama administration has allowed food stamp enrollment to explode.

SNAP and WIC (for more information, go to benefits.gov) were designed for the very poorest of the poor - but now we're funding fully 1/7 of the country with them, and a percentage end up for sale, usually for $.50 on the dollar on craigslist and elsewhere. See the Fox News report, cited below, for their take on it.

Many years ago, I was a police officer. Back then, drug addicts sold food stamps openly and used them to buy alcohol and luxury food items all of the time.

Mom and Pop grocery stores frequently ring up one thing as another these days. Three days ago, I stood in line to buy groceries and a lady paid with WIC to buy steaks, a bottle of Jack Daniels and some hygiene products. My check-out consisted of hamburger, but the government wasn't paying for my food -- I was.

I don't have problems paying for WIC under these circumstances:

(FDA) The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides Federal grants to States for supplemental foods, health care referrals, and nutrition education for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and non-breastfeeding postpartum women, and to infants and children up to age five who are found to be at nutritional risk.

Unfortunately the fraud, waste and abuse is rampant.

(Fox News) Food stamps -- are being sold on the online bulletin board as well as auction sites like eBay. FoxNews.com found several offerings at Craigslist sites around the country, where the sellers offered the welfare benefits at large discounts from face value.

“If you need food. This is not a gimmick or game,” read one posting from Philadelphia. “Please let me know, I have food stamps for sale..... Serious Replies only!!!”

“I have $500 worth and it costs $350 cash. No I will not do half!” read another posting from the Atlanta area. “I don't need to sell. If you would like to get an extra $150 to $175 in grocery and pay no taxes and can see the benefit that you will still be saving then email me or call me and we can arrange the whole deal as soon as you like.”

“DO YOU NEED SOME QUICK CASH?? -- $100 (atlanta),” read the title of one such post, under which the buyer offered: "If you get Food Stamps and need some extra cash then hit me asap,” reads the post.

In another posting from the Trenton, N.J., area, the seller claims that he will have a $100 EBT card available on Nov. 1 for $60.

The Republican controlled House of Representatives is trying to reign in the spending but the Democrats, whose interest is in buying votes, are pushing back with Barack Obama leading the charge.

Barack Obama has spent four and a half years showing Fahd's successor, King Abdullah, that he is not serious or clear-minded or competent when it comes to the Middle East and its many threats. Now the Saudis are redefining their relationship with the US because we are an "unreliable ally".

President Barack Obama made news when he bowed to Saudi King Abdullah. That was when he had the whole magic Muslim thing going on an hope and change was in the air. Today, the Obama Administration's policy dances across the board, wrapped by red lines and insincerity, driven by the latest domestic polling. Saudi Arabia is making a move to distance itself from the United States, and it represents a tectonic shift in the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia's intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan told European diplomats the kingdom will make a "major shift" in its relations with the United States, according to an unidentified source close to Saudi policy on 22 October.

Prince Bandar said the US had failed to act effectively on the Syria crisis and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was growing closer to Tehran, and had failed to back Saudi support for Bahrain when it crushed an anti-government revolt in 2011.

Prince Bandar also that he plans to limit interaction with the US. "Relations with the US have been deteriorating for a while, as Saudi feels that the U.S. is growing closer with Iran and the U.S. also failed to support Saudi during the Bahrain uprising," according to the source. Bandar reportedly said there would be no further coordination with the United States over the fighting in Syria.

How Barack Obama always hoped
that history would portray him.

Saudi Arabia refused a seat on the UN Security Council recently as a rotating member, which is shocking but it happened. In announcing this action, the Saudi attitudes towards the US resemble the Iranian hardline clerics who said this week that if the US is encouraged by Iranian diplomacy then the diplomacy is wrong.

Saudi Arabian leaders have been quietly but sternly critical of multiple recent US actions in the Middle East, especially the installation of a Shiite-led government in Baghdad through elections. The Obama policy setback spotlights that Saudi and US interests are not congruent on the four or five top issues driving instability in the Middle East. In addition, the leaders define the end states of current initiatives differently.

This is particularly true with respect to Iran's nuclear program in that the US is relaxing its longstanding policy position that Iran must halt uranium enrichment. The US appears to be moving to a containment strategy, which it has rejected consistently and as recently as last summer. President Ruhani's election and change of style not substance marks the turning point.

How history will end up portraying
Barack Obama

With respect to Syria, Saudi officials see similar backsliding in the US agreement with Russia to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons. Although the US Secretary of State insists President Asad must go, the agreement absolutely depends on the continuation of the Baathist government in Damascus. The US treats Syrian issues as separate from Iranian nuclear issues. The Saudis perceive them as inseparable.

The Benghazi Scandal, the botched hope and change of the Arab Spring can be fairly split between Obama and Secretary of State Clinton, but the Syrian mess (Russian coming-back party) and now the serious split with Saudi Arabia are Obama's own debacle. I'm sure that he will find somebody to blame, but the legacy failure is something that he will end up owning because history tends to do that.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Some say that the voters figured out they could vote themselves money from the treasury by electing people who promised to give them money from the treasury in exchange for electing them. I don't think that the thought process of the high propensity Obama voters operate at that complex of a level. They want something for nothing and that's about the extent of it.

The Democratic Party made a conscious decision before Franklin Roosevelt to offer Bread and Circus, or "The New Deal" to the masses and use American's own money to buy their votes. The process was refined with Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" -- and the projects that were built in the 1960's at public expense became high rise slums as inner city people from sprawling slums were concentrated in the high rise units. Enter Jimmy Carter, a horrible president who performed so badly, that the Republicans came back for 12 years, defeated the Soviet Union and brought prosperity (and apathy) back to the nation. The Republican economy buoyed up the Clinton Years, and Bill Clinton tried bread and circus but his heart wasn't really in it because he turned welfare into "workfare".

George Bush wasn't a bad president, but he was saddled with a recession at the same time as 9/11 went down and he kicked the economic can down the road, propelled by Dodd-Frank, which wrecked the economy eventually. He couldn't attack Saudi Arabia - and influential Saudis were at the core of the 9/11 attack, and America wanted vengeance so we attacked Afghanistan because we needed to attack somebody. Then he went a 'bridge too far' and attacked Iraq -- because he could, not because he should. Thus ushering in a more refined era of bread and circus, featuring the Chicago political machine (no strangers at buying votes).

The fall of Rome is laid at a number of causations, but bread and circus is clearly one factor. The complacent Romans wanted the conquered lands to bear the brunt of buying votes back home and Julius Caesar broke the back of the republic by offering them himself as dictator. This began the reign of the Caesars.

Roughly 50 million Americans receive food stamps (bread). Circus is provided by the mainstream media's propaganda campaign (which replaced the news) and mindless popular shows such as "dancing with the stars" and "singing competitions". How else can you look at it?

"Free Healthcare" will collapse the best health insurance system in the world as the motivation to provide quality diminishes and government rules and regulations inundate and destroy private enterprise that sought market share based on quality. But everyone likes "free" because somebody else is paying for it.

Barack Obama, the first Post American president is not to blame. The American people are to blame. And they're going to get what's coming to them. Or they can begin a course correction in 2014.

The mainstream media will remain loyal trumpets of lies and misrepresentations, and the bread will flow above all else...

It's interesting to see what people can do with a couple "ass gaskets", some paper towels and imagination.

Nina Katchadourian whiles away long plane journeys by locking herself in the lavatory and pretending to be a 15th century Dutch painting. The project began spontaneously on a flight in March 2010 and is ongoing.

Can Old NFO top this? I understand that those who frequently read his blog about his travels back and forth across the pond will want to see his entries into the competition.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

(Jihad Watch) Twelve years after 9/11, the U.S. has changed sides. The Long War Journal reported on June 29 that the Al Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant, which is “al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria,” has “cooperated with Free Syrian Army units to establish sharia, or Islamic law, in Aleppo and in eastern Syria.” What is the Free Syrian Army? The "moderates" whom we are training and to whom we are giving weapons: “the US government is backing the Free Syrian Army despite the group’s known ties to the Al Nusrah Front.”

Free Syrian Army (FSA) units are receiving intensive training from US Marine Corps personnel in Saudi Arabia, a senior FSA source has told IHS Jane's. The source said the United States and Saudi Arabia have agreed to train around 1,500 insurgents. The programme began a few months ago and most of the personnel will be trained by the end of 2013.

The courses last for 100 days and include fighting in built up areas (FIBUA). The most recent intake that arrived from Jordan on 13 October consists of around 40% from insurgent groups operating inside Syria, with the rest recruited from refugees in neighbouring countries.

I wonder how history will paint this move by the United States of America - joining with Al Qaeda and training them? “He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.” I'm sure that high school text books will point to this glorious union of "the progressive movement and Wahhabist Islam" as a wonderful event. Look for it at a school near you.

How do all those wounded Marines at Bethesda Naval Hospital feel about keeping Al Qaeda going with American arms and training? Maybe they don't know. It won't be covered by MSNBC. General James F. Amos, Commandant of the US Marine Corps needs to resign his command - but he won't. He's an Obama appointee and I'm sure he's on board and comfortable with all of this hope and change.

If you go to a movie to see the "real and untold story" and expect to see a genuine portrayal of events, you might be disappointed by the new feature film, Captain Phillips, starring Tom Hanks.

Hanks' politics are not mine, but he does a good job of acting in a movie based on a book about the incident (possibly self-serving) that was written by Richard Phillips, the subject of a hostage situation on the high seas in 2009.

If the crew had half a dozen rifles between them, they could have stopped the hijacking from happening in the first place but merchant ships chose to travel through pirate infested waters unarmed. That is the message that people might decide to take away from the film. It's not the message that Hollywood decided to send. Native savages in fishing boats took a number of ships in the waters off Somalia and in some cases, made millions in ransom. The way to stop that from happening is to kill the natives turned pirate.

Of the four pirates that took the Maersk Alabama on April 19, 2009, three died by head-shots administered by SEALs on the Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) on the USS Boxer and one was captured and subsequently sentenced to 33 years on prison in the US.

(KSDK.COM) The new Tom hanks movie is getting rave reviews, but also taking some heat. Captain Phillips tells the real-life story of the Maersk Alabama, a ship hijacked by Somali pirates in 2009.

The captain was taken hostage and later hailed as a hero. Now, some of the crew members are speaking out, saying the movie gets it all wrong...Back in 2010, Perry told CNN he and most of the crew couldn't believe the story being painted about their captain, Captain Richard Phillips: that he had given himself up in exchange for the safety of his crew. Left out of the entire story, says Perry, is the captain's recklessness that steered the Maersk Alabama into pirate-infested waters.

All in all, I enjoyed the film and give it an 8 out of a possible 10, which amounts to a recommendation to see the movie.

Friday, October 18, 2013

According to the Iranian press, delegates from Iran and the six nation group called the P5 + 1, who met in Geneva to negotiate Iran's nuclear program, issued a joint statement after the conclusion of the second day of talks in which they announced they have agreed to hold the next round of talks on 7 and 8 November.

Those same press accounts indicate Iran has offered a three stage plan that includes snap inspections of nuclear facilities and an agreement to limit uranium enrichment in return for an easing of sanctions. If accepted, it would mean that the six nations agree to allow Iran to enrich uranium. Moreover, snap inspections of declared facilities is a deceptively easy concession to make. Iran already has been found to have built at least one facility that was not declared to the International Atomic Energy Agency until after it was discovered. This deal is similar to President Ruhani's diplomatic style when he was the top Iranian nuclear negotiator between 2003 and 2005 - offer small compromises by Iran in return for major concessions by the West and others.

Israeli cartoon reflecting a lack
of confidence in Obama.

Iran plans to build a nuclear weapon. Their stated goal is to use it against Israel, though they privately hate the Saudis worse. It's a mistake to think that Iran is made up of a bunch of bumpkin camel herders. The Iranian/Persian history tells us that they should not be underestimated - either in the level of ruthlessness that they are willing to use or the depths to which they are willing to plot.

With Obama leading the US efforts, the tyrants of the world are emboldened. And why wouldn't they be? He's a strange, metrosexual, mulatto with an agenda to damage the United States. He's a man who boasts of red lines -- that mean nothing to him.

Israel, on the other hand, has a lot to lose if Iran initiates a surprise attack, setting off a nuclear weapon (likely Tel Aviv) or weapons (targeting Dimona and elsewhere).

Where is the news media in all this?

They're marveling at how Obama's dog trainer is making $120,000 per year (paid for by the taxpayer) to keep BO from wetting the carpet and baseboard in the Oval Office. Maybe it's not BO. Maybe it's Barack? MSNBC would test the urine and pronounce it perfume... so we're not going to find an honest broker there.

Thursday, October 17, 2013

The American people are going to receive a lesson in spending "other people's money" with ObamaCare as their premiums and deductibles soar. Maybe that's a good thing. The best lessons are the ones that are learned hard. In Chicago, the Obama homeland, insurance plans with the least expensive monthly premiums, touted by state and federal officials as proof that the new law will keep costs low for consumers, have deductibles as high as $6,350 for individuals and $12,700 for families. (source IBD)

The Jabber Jocks in the mainstream media have gleefully predicted the end of the Republican Party because of the shut-down. It may go like that, or ObamaCare may be the pivot on which the public wakes from it's Obama induced coma.

Will people remember the shut down when it's time to vote again in a year? Unlikely. Americans have a very short memory, which is why they returned Obama to the White House a second time.

The Federal Government needs to shrink to roughly half its present size by leaving to the states the matters best controlled locally -- but it's not going in that direction. Most of Washington DC never met a 'program' that they didn't like. It all comes down to buying votes.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Not everyone wants America fundamentally transformed. But apparently enough people do? They wanted Obama back and we have 3.5 years more of this 'balderdash' to live through. "Social Justice" means that 51% of Americans pay no federal income tax, and feed parasitically on the 49% who do, as vote buying becomes part of government policy, and as the vehicle for turning democracy against itself in the push to establish a socialist state.

The early Obama vision involved the creation of a "civilian force" as large as the US Military to enforce fundamental transformation, but that didn't go anywhere. Yes, there were a few inner city efforts to create local Obama militias, but the demise of ACORN took the wind out of the sails of those same people who filled the levy for a militia. (ACORN is back touting ObamaCare - so they never really went away)

Commentary: Quite frankly, it's unlikely that the local police would have supported the Obama brown shirts, and when it comes to effective training, there are better trained ex-military people among the populace than the inner city army would have ever turned out to be. SEIU thugs don't have the stomach for a stand-up fight.

Disarming American citizens was high on the Obama Agenda and one of the first moves to demonstrate how firearms were moving from the US to Mexico was for the Obama Administration to do it themselves through the then secret Operation Fast and Furious -- that blew up in their faces. By 2010 there was a Republican majority in the House of Representatives and they subpoenaed witnesses and held hearings. Ultimately Attorney General Eric Holder was held in contempt of Congress, but the news media didn't care and didn't share fully with the American people. Holder is still in office causing mischief.

Crushing your enemies was a very high priority for Barack Obama and thus the strategy to set the Internal Revenue Service on vocal Republicans who handed out copies of the US Constitution and other "un-American" activity. Obama would have gone Farenheit 451 if he thought that he could have gotten away with it. But with a divided government, congressional hearings again brought the truth out and IRS was unmasked.

The Obama expansion of the National Security Agency's surveillance activity to domestic e-mail and telephone calls without warrants stirred up a hornet's nest. Abroad, disclosures that we shamelessly wiretapped everyone has brought a backlash.

"If you're going to lie, make it a big one and keep telling it." - Never more graphically illustrated than with the Obama Administrations lies and "spin" on the Benghazi Massacre. The whole truth is not in the public domain yet, but I suspect that should Hillary Clinton fail to become president - it will be.

Commentary: 100 years ago, it would have been called treason. Today it's business as usual in the ObamaNation.

ObamaCare puts the public's health and control over that healthcare in the hands of the same federal government that set the IRS on the president's political opponents...let that sink in for a moment. But it appears as if it will implode separate and apart from the current talks over the budget. Maybe it's better to let it disintegrate on its own merits?

Foreign Policy, from Benghazi to Syria, has repeatedly plastered egg on the face of Obama's Administration as Russia turned out to be the "good guy" on the international stage. China repeatedly calls the US out publicly for being "unsound" and Europe has lost faith in the initial hype for the "magic negro". Emboldened Iran works to complete its nuclear weapons that it's vowed to fire at Israel with Obama's red line meaning absolutely nothing.

Commentary: Obama backed Al Qaeda in Syria and sent them arms. We've been at war with Al Qaeda since 2001 -- and if that is not treason, I have difficulty defining it. It used to be defined as "giving aid and comfort to the enemy during a time of war". Maybe by declaring the war over, even though Al Qaeda didn't think it was over somehow provided Obama with a legal dodge? A lot of Americans died in the "War on Terror" and for Obama to embrace and aid those very enemies, still in the field against the US is beyond unconscionable. Maybe it falls under the Obama rubric of "social justice"?

The war on domestic energy that Obama and friends undertook is unrelenting and the global warming/cooling hoaxes continue to be blamed while the rest of the world mines, drills and uses their resources. Americans have lost their sticker shock over $5.00/gallon gasoline as it becomes the norm in many states with high gas taxes (California, the liberal paradise, being one).

Homosexuality is cooler now than ever before as the ObamaNation officially embraced sodomy as the "new normal". In California, the roll out of homosexual sensitivity training begins in K-6 as of 2014 as a mandatory part of public education.

Senator Rand Paul had to filibuster for 12 hours for Attorney General Eric Holder to write an opinion that armed drone aircraft should not be used to target and kill Americans on US soil who were not guilty of committing any crime. Apparently the Obama Administration thought of thinning the ranks of the political opposition by using drone strikes to do their dirty work? It's difficult to separate fact from fiction in the ObamaNation because everything that you think must be an exaggeration turns out to be true in congressional hearing rooms.

Housekeeping

As of January 1, 2017 this blog began to receive anonymous posts. I try not to delete them, but if you want to be taken seriously here, you need to identify yourself, if only by some sort of cryptonym.

Welcome to Virtual Mirage

"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.

"Oh, you can't help that," said the cat. "We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad."

"How do you know I'm mad," asked Alice?

"You must be," said the cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."

Good Morning

Virtual Mirage - What's on the other side of the mirror? Ask Alice how deep the rabbit hole really goes.

This blog is an extension of MY JOURNEY because sometimes my journey needs more explanation, and sometimes there is more to be said than can be expressed on one ordinary blog.

Sometimes it's politics (very serious), sometimes I address the human condition with a dose of humor, and other times it may seem as if the track is headed in a unique direction. I can be a complicated guy at times.

There are a few things you'll find I consider:

* Absence of proof is not proof of absence.

* Sometimes the questions are complex but the answers are simple.

* Love is the only condition where the happiness of another person is essential to your own.

* Steers do not sign treaties with meat packers. (think on that)

* Taxes are NEVER levied for the benefit of the taxed.

* The purpose of fighting is to win. There is no victory possible in defense.

WHITE POWDER (Novel)

There is something intoxicating about a secret.

THE OLD WHORE (NOVEL)

In the peculiar culture of the Central Intelligence Agency, "old whores" are people who will do whatever it takes to get the job done, irrespective of the cost.

EXILES FROM EDEN (NOVEL)

Sparks fly as two star-crossed lovers meet. He runs toward trouble as she yearns for something missing. And it ends in a flight from and toward justice.

About Me

Today, I balance work and play as much as anyone can. All things remaining equal, play is more important. Life is short - it's important to make every day count for something, if only to yourself.
I'm a former tinker/tailor/soldier/sailor who has now decided that maybe it really wasn't all done for nothing.